City awaiting state OK to open Reed Street under Metro-North Railroad tracks in South Norwalk

By ROBERT KOCH Hour Staff Writer

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Thursday, October 13, 2011

NORWALK -- Almost two years ago, city and state officials celebrated the completion of the Reed Street underpass beneath Metro-North Railroad's Danbury Line tracks in South Norwalk.

On Thursday, as some of those same officials announced the upcoming groundbreaking for the first phase of nearby District 95/7 SoNo, Jersey barriers remain in place near the underpass, blocking motor-vehicle traffic from North Water Street to Reed Street.

It wasn't supposed to take so long to open the new thoroughfare, long planned as a key artery linking the east and west portions of the Reed Putnam redevelopment area. The opening of the roadway beneath the railroad bridge will in effect connect North Water Street with West Avenue.

Harold F. Alvord, the city's director of public works, was not at the groundbreaking announcement but spoke afterward to The Hour about the underpass.

"We don't have the permanent access easement from the state," Alvord said. "We built the bridge, so there are two documents that need to change hands: We need to deed the bridge over to the state. And then they need to give us a permanent access easement, so we can open the road under the bridge, because we're going through their right-of-way."

Alvord said the city has deeded the bridge to the state. The state hasn't yet granted the city easement rights for the road beneath it to open.

Kevin J. Nursick, ConnDOT spokesman, said the department attorney handling the matter and familiar with its specifics is out of the office until Monday. Nursick said it was his understanding that there was no pressure to put the easement in place given that nothing has been built yet in the District 95/7 area.

"(But) my understanding is that I think that an agreement is close. I know that we've been in regular contact with the city and we would have the agreement soon," Nursick said.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Diane Beltz-Jacobson, the attorney handling the matter for the city, said the city has done everything on its end.

"It's not being held up by the city," Beltz-Jacobson said. "We're waiting for the state to give us the public easement back to use the bridge."

Construction of the underpass began in May 2008. On Oct. 16, 2009, upward of 100 people attended a ribbon-cutting at the site announcing its completion and also a symbolic groundbreaking for roughly $6.7 million of roadwork for West Avenue.